The sexual life of our time in its relations to modern civilization / by Iwan Bloch ; translated by M. Eden Paul.

  • Bloch, Iwan, 1872-1922.
Date:
[between 1908 and 1920?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sexual life of our time in its relations to modern civilization / by Iwan Bloch ; translated by M. Eden Paul. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the primeval and ever-active sexual impulse, elemental in its nature, are led only to a hopeless doubt as to the possibility of all love, and thus justify the pessimism with which Schopenhauer has condemned the significance of human sexual love. Un¬ doubtedly this elemental impulse persists for ever, and to follow it alone leads to death, to utter desolation, to nothingness, as Tolstoi, Strindberg, and Weininger, the bitter opponents of modern “ love,” have so vehemently declared. But did these men know true love ? Had they become conscious of the inevitable necessity with which civilization in the course of ages and generations had transformed the human sexual impulse into love as it now exists, transformed it in so manifold and so wonder¬ ful a way ? Had they any idea of the development of love, and of its place and its significance in history ? Let them believe this, these doubting and despairing souls— nothing has been destroyed of all the spiritual relations, of all the wonderful possibilities of development, which have manifested themselves in the course of the long and varied history of the evolution of love. To describe this evolution, it is necessary to draw attention to all those elements of civilization which remain at present influential in love, but it is further indispensable to forecast their future development. Once again we stand at an important turning-point in the history of love. The old separates itself from the new, the better will once more be the enemy of the good. But love regarded, as it must now be regarded, in its inner nature, as a sexual impulse most perfectly and completely infused with a spiritual content, will remain the inalienable gain of civilization ; it will stand forth ever purer and more promotive of happiness, like a mirror of marvellous clearness, wherein is reflected a peculiar and accurate picture of the successive epochs of civilization.